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Originally published as Genetics Published Articles Ahead of Print on August 24, 2007.
Genetics, Vol. 177, 917-926, October 2007, Copyright © 2007
doi:10.1534/genetics.107.076893
Stable Inheritance of Host Species-Derived Microchromosomes in the Gynogenetic Fish Poecilia formosa
Indrajit Nanda*,
Ingo Schlupp
,
Dunja K. Lamatsch
,2,
Kathrin P. Lampert,
Michael Schmid* and
Manfred Schartl,1
* Universität Würzburg, Institut für Humangenetik, Biozentrum, D-97074 Würzburg, Germany, Department of Zoology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma 73019 and Universität Würzburg, Physiologische Chemie I, Biozentrum, D-97074 Würzburg, Germany
1 Corresponding author: Physiological Chemistry I, University of Würzburg, Biozentrum, Am Hubland, D-97074 Wuerzburg, Germany.
E-mail: phch1{at}biozentrum.uni-wuerzburg.de
B chromosomes are additional, usually unstable constituents of the genome of many organisms. Their origin, however, is often unclear and their evolutionary relevance is not well understood. They may range from being deleterious to neutral or even beneficial. We have followed the genetic fate of B chromosomes in the asexual, all-female fish Poecilia formosa over eight generations. In this species, B chromosomes come in the form of one to three tiny microchromosomes derived from males of the host species that serve as sperm donors for this gynogenetic species. All microchromosomes have centromeric heterochromatin but usually only one has a telomere. Such microchromosomes are stably inherited, while the telomereless are prone to be lost in both the soma and germline. In some cases the stable microchromosome carries a functional gene lending support to the hypothesis that the B chromosomes in P. formosa could increase the genetic diversity of the clonal lineage in this ameiotic organism and to some degree counteract the genomic decay that is supposed to be connected with the lack of recombination.
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